Almost nothing matters in Spring Training. In essence, every statistic is flawed, as competition is wildly imbalanced. Teams are literally ‘split’ into separate squads, and pitchers will actually throw in the bullpen after pitching to live batters. Everything is an exhibition, and there is virtually no takeaways from baseball games being played in March.
At least, not in the traditional sense.
Logan Forsythe sharing the American League home run leaderboard cannot be put into any real context. Nor can Mark Lowe‘s two wins — also tied for the American League lead in that category. At this stage, comparing numbers among players is useless.
The value, therefore, lies in comparing one player against himself. Is Troy Tulowitzki back to form, again? Is Kris Bryant ready? And, when the range is widened to include a specific team – what will the starting outfield look like in Los Angeles?
From injuries to recoveries, prospects to position-battles, Spring Training may fall short in the typical display of competition, but it thrives in the market of storylines.
The following are the top-six storylines from Spring Training:
